Grant Stanley Consulting

Let’s face it. Your boss might not be the most emotionally evolved mammal on the planet.   Chances are you will have to deal with (or have already dealt with) a boss that is all too like the chicanery you see from Dunder Mifflin’s leadership team. No matter what you do, it’s never enough.   Your results are never big enough or fast enough.   Even though the boss is never there, when he/she does decide to show up they “second guesses” all your decisions and keeps asking “what the hell is going on around here?” All the while you are using all your big people skills to not shout out the obvious answer — “You would know if you were here…”   But you shut your mouth and pretend to take notes on the clipboard you are holding.   Muttering to yourself if having a job is really all that worth it. Not for bosses like that! The extra stress and chaos does nothing but bring you years closer to your death.   It’s not only stupid, it’s dangerous – to you...

10 Reasons Why your Boss shouldn’t be Your Friend Is it ever OK for a manager to be friends with their employees? Believe me, this isn’t just a question brand new manager’s struggle with (and most of them do). It’s an issue a lot of experienced managers are questioned about as well, and many of them don’t think it’s a problem at all. The issue of “buddy to boss” might not be as black and white as you might think. Conventional management and HR 101 wisdom would tell you it’s absolutely not OK. In fact, some companies might even try to outlaw it through “cronyism” policies. However, in the real world of work, emotions and relationships can’t be governed by policy. Workplace relationships are can be extremely tricky, just as personal or family relationships can be. Managers are not robots – they have feelings and emotions. Sometimes you can’t help but like one employee more than another. Sometimes workplace romances blossom between managers and employees (that’s a whol...

Between 2002 and 2008 I was employed by British Telecom as the Central Regional Sales Director.   This afforded me the ability to influence, coach, mentor and deliver results through a staff of over 300; across 2 call centres and Field based consultants.   I wrote this article a few years ago but never published it, but I feel it is relevant now as the increase in the economy generally increases attrition rates. Just to set the scene, my call centres had an attrition rate of almost 37% when I took responsibility in 2006, but following the following principles below, I was able to reduce my annual attrition to below 15% with less than 4% annual absence records.   This may sound high to some but for a Call centre environment this is fantastic! Recruitment – getting it right from the start It is essential when recruiting that the correct competencies and behaviours are defined in order to deliver your business’s requirements.  Once the potential applicant’s...

This is a deviation from my normal genre of posting but relevant nonetheless. Whilst we compare the two contrasting theories of population growth, there are similarities in the business world that we can prepare for and prevent. The first is from Malthus, who was writing at the end of the 18th century. He believed that only bad could come from population growth. Population he said grows faster than food supply. This he said was because food supply can only grow arithmetically, for example, 1 then 2 then 3-4-5-6-7-8 but, population grows geometrically 2-4-8-16-32-64. Consequently, there is no way food supply can keep up with population growth. Therefore, population will inevitably exceed food supply. He then went on two say that there are two possible outcomes. Firstly, he said population could exceed food supply only to be positively "checked" (reduced) by famine, war, and disease.   Population exceeds food supply and is kept in check b...